Author's note: After finally getting this story back up when I had some free time, I have now finished the 17th chapter. As a lot of people have asked, I shall keep this story as Harry/Ginny romance, but with Harry/Hallie brother/sister relationship. It was my original plan, but I thought that I should give my readers a choice as I wouldn't have minded either way. And as some of you may realise at least by the end of this chapter, Harry will be getting smarter and will take more control over his life and what happens in the school, even if he has to assume authority over the professors and demand answers. The shock of his authority is what will stop him from getting into trouble as none of the professors have encountered such a person before. This will not mean that Dumbledore will stop his pursuit to control Harry, however, as his plans will become clearer in due time. Harry's increasing intelligence and skill is also what will allow him to see what others would normally miss, hence his thinking at the end of this chapter. Now, after that explanation, it's time to continue this story with:

Chapter 17: The Chamber of Secrets is Opened

Harry and Hallie had walked to the Gryffindor common room entrance, but strangely, there was no Ginny there waiting for them. The two students checked inside the common room and found nothing, and even when Hallie went up to the girls' dormitories, she still couldn't find Ginny. Harry was in a panic then and became worried that something might have happened to her.

Harry and Hallie then exited the common room to see, much to their relief, that Ginny was walking back to the common room entrance. Harry noticed though that she seemed to be a bit dazed and confused. He'd have to look into this and find out why as he knew that it didn't bode well.

"Hey Ginny! Over here! I have someone I'd like you to meet! Are you alright?!" Harry called.

"O-oh, h-hi Harry. I'm f-fine. And who's this?" Ginny stammered due to her dazed state.

"Ginny, this is Hallie Jackson, a muggle-born first-year Slytherin. I fortunately found her just before a group of older Slytherin boys were about to rape her. Suffice to say that I dealt with them and stomped down on their fathers' heads a little," Harry explained with a grin at the last sentence.

"That's good to know. I bet Dumbledore was a bit peeved at you taking control with that situation. It's nice to meet you Hallie, I'm Ginny Weasley. I think that I remember you from some of our lessons together. You're always in the corner at the back alone. You don't need to worry about that anymore. Any friend of Harry's is trustworthy enough to be my friend too, so you can sit with me if you like," Ginny said politely.

Hallie's eyes widened at Ginny's proposal and quick acceptance of her. She realised that both Harry and Ginny must be quite close and both held trust very highly in friendships. She was glad that Harry found her now as she realised that she might finally have found some true friends here.

"Thank you, Ginny. That means a lot to me. And I like your idea," Hallie replied happily.

"Well, now that that's sorted, let's get going," Harry said.

Harry then began to lead Ginny and Hallie down the Hogwarts corridors in the direction of the Grounds, however, something unexpected happened that stopped Harry in his tracks.

"Kill...Time to kill...Time to rip...Rip...Tear...Kill...Blood..." bellowed a disembodied voice.

"Did you two just hear that?" Harry enquired, confused at the strange voice.

"Hear what? Harry, what's wrong?" Hallie replied, concerned at Harry's question and stiffness.

"I heard a voice saying that it wants to kill. Come on, let's check this out," Harry answered, looking at both girls.

Harry noticed that although Hallie looked confused, Ginny seemed to have an expression that was a mixture of confusion, yet underlying recognition and fear. He would have to talk with her after they found out what was going on here, especially if only he could hear the voice.

The trio then headed in the direction that Harry could hear the voice coming from until they got to a corridor and the voice faded away. Obviously whatever it was had left...for now. Turning the corner, the trio were shocked when they saw writing on the wall and something hanging down on the wall. They were shuck out of their stupor when they heard running footsteps and a familiar voice appear behind them.

"Harry, Ginny! Why were you running so fast?! And who's-?!" Hermione's voice died in her throat as she saw the writing on the wall.

"This is Hallie Jackson, our new friend. As to why we were running here, I think that you've just found out why," Harry answered seriously.

"'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened...Enemies of the Heir, beware'. It's written in blood..." Hermione read aloud as her face scrunched up into a look of disgust and horror as she realised what was used to write such a message.

Just then, the trio saw Filch come around the corner and stood stiff in horror as he laid eyes on what was hanging on the wall.

"Mrs Norris?" Filch asked no-one in particular.

The trio then looked up to see that it was indeed Mrs Norris hanging by her tail on a torch post sticking out of the wall. She was completely still with a look of fear on her face at whatever she saw before becoming petrified.

"You've murdered my cat!" Filch cried at Harry, not paying any attention to the girls as he was the closest to Mrs Norris.

"No, I didn't. I got here just before you did," Harry stated calmly, trying to keep his anger in check as the despicable caretaker accused him of such a vile act.

"You killed Mrs Norris! I'll kill you! I kill you, you scum!" Filch screamed as he charged towards Harry.

Harry merely side-stepped the deranged caretaker and kicked his butt, literally, knocking him to the floor.

"I never touched your cat, Mr Filch! Next time, get your facts straight before you attack someone that who have no hope to get the drop on!" Harry warned darkly.

Just then, a large group of students and teachers came around the corner being led by Dumbledore after he heard Filch's voice.

"Argus! Argus I-!" Dumbledore tried to say before the words were lost in his throat as he saw Harry standing over Filch on the floor, then looked up to see the writing on the wall.

"Enemies of the Heir beware?! You'll be next mud-!" Malfoy tried to say before he was quickly faced by an angry Harry.

"Just try and finish that word, Malfoy, and it will be the last thing you ever do...Do you understand me?" Harry threatened, causing Malfoy to flinch and cower away into the crowd of students.

"Everyone will proceed to their dormitories immediately...Everyone except you four..." Dumbledore ordered, pointing to Harry, Ginny, Hallie and Hermione and beckoning them to come to him and the other teachers.

The rest of the students left the scene quickly in fear of what was meant by the writing on the wall, minus the Slytherins, leaving only the teachers and the quartet remaining. The quartet then walked up the teachers grudgingly, knowing full well that they would probably not listen to them and claim that they were playing a dark prank and try to get them to own up to it.

"Now, can you four please explain what has happened here? Did you happen to write that message on the wall?" Dumbledore immediately asked, or more demanded.

"Of course they did! That brat murdered my cat!" Filch piped up as he got up and walked up to the rest of the teachers, keeping a gap between him and Harry.

"I neither wrote the message on the wall, nor touch Mrs Norris! I refuse to be accused of such a despicable thing! What exactly am I supposed to gain from this?! Plus, Mrs Norris isn't dead, she's been petrified! Her facial expression being frozen as well as the rest of her body is proof of that! I would gain nothing from this other than to get into trouble if I was the one that I did this, which is pointless!" Harry explained angrily, shocking most of the teachers and Filch with his outburst.

Severus merely smirked as he internally grinned at seeing his fellow teachers and the old coot shocked at Harry's clear anger at the situation. He bet that the old coot wasn't expecting this. Yes, this would be interesting in how Harry would handle this as he knew that Harry would want to get to the bottom of this.

"And more to the point, I want to know who are the possible candidates for the 'Heir' that could open this Chamber of Secrets as well as what and where the Chamber is. Any suggestions on how I may go about this?" Harry demanded.

"The library should give you all of the information that you need. As to the Heir, they would be Slytherin's Heir and no-one knows where the Chamber is unfortunately except the Heir," Severus answered.

"Thank you for answering, Professor. Girls, a trip to the library is in order, I believe," Harry said as he turned his back on the shocked professors, with the exception of Severus, and walked in the direction of the library.

Ginny, Hallie and Hermione soon followed after Harry as the professors also turned around and went the opposite direction, with Dumbledore cursing this new development and Harry's immediate control over the situation once again. Once the quartet got to the library, Harry went to the section about Ancient and Noble Houses to try and find something on the most recent and possible candidates for the Heir of Slytherin. Ginny, Hallie and Hermione merely watched intrigued as he went through book after book, scanning all of the books of one shelf in mere minutes before moving to the next one down. They had never seen him so determined to figure something out before. After a few minutes, he found what he was looking for as he kept the book, walked over to an empty table and sat down as he flicked through the pages in the book until he stopped at one page with a triumphant grin on his face.

"So this is where you've been hiding," Harry said to himself.

"Where who's been hiding?" Ginny asked, making the girls' presences known.

"I've finally found the list of Lords, Ladies and Heirs of the Slytherin line. The books all magically update themselves so everything is up to date. Get this; the most recent Heir, before he was apparently defeated, was one Thomas 'Tom' Marvolo Riddle. According to this, the current Heir, by conquest, is...me?!" Harry cried out in shock.

"T-Tom R-Riddle?" Ginny asked hesitantly.

"You're the Heir of Slytherin?! But you didn't cause the attacks!" Hermione cried out.

"Yes, Tom Riddle, and no, I didn't cause the attacks. This can only mean one thing. This Tom Riddle, or whoever opened the Chamber last, is on some sort of mission. What I want to know now is how I can possibly be the Heir of Slytherin when I have never met this Tom Riddle and defeated him...unless I have, but not as Tom Riddle..." Harry explained as he finally put the pieces together.

"What, Harry? Wait...you don't think...?" Hermione asked, also starting to piece things together.

"Tom Riddle is Voldemort. It's the only explanation that I can come up with. The only wizard that I could possibly have beaten in my lifetime that has a real connection with Slytherin is Voldemort. None of the current families here, like the Malfoys, have any direct descendants from Salazar Slytherin, so it's impossible for it to be from defeating one of them," Harry explained.

"A-are y-you s-sure?" Ginny asked fearfully.

"Yes, quite. Why? What's wrong, Ginny? You haven't looked right since I met up with you with Hallie earlier today. Do you know something about Tom?" Harry enquired.

"H-how did you know?" Ginny asked again, not wanting to answer in case Harry wouldn't want to be her friend anymore.

"I have good perception in regards to my friends. Now tell me, what do you know? I will not chastise you for anything that you've kept secret from us if there's no good reason behind it. I am your friend after all," Harry replied reassuringly.

"Alright...Well, it started after I got back home from Diagon Alley. I noticed that there was an extra book in my cauldron that wasn't there before. It was a diary with the name 'T. M. Riddle' written on it. When I opened it, the pages were blank. So, I decided to write in it, but the ink faded away once I wrote the words. But the weird thing was that new words appeared from the page coming from a different person...The person introduced themselves as Tom Marvolo Riddle..." Ginny explained hesitantly.

"So that's why you recognised the name...May I ask another question?" Harry asked.

"O-ok," Ginny replied weakly.

"What do you remember between when I saw you in the morning and when we met up before this whole 'Heir of Slytherin' crap?" Harry enquired sceptically.

"I remember going to my classes and going back to my dorm. I wrote in Tom's diary for a while, then I blacked out and found myself in the girl's bathroom when I woke up. I must have dosed off and gone sleep walking," Ginny replied.

"I don't think that you were sleep walking, Ginny. I need to take a look at that diary. If what I fear is true, then you need to get rid of it as soon as possible," Harry stated.

"W-what are you saying, Harry?" Ginny squeaked.

"What I'm saying is that I think that our good friend Tommy-boy is trying to finish what he started through the diary by possessing you so that he has a physical body to open the Chamber with as he can't do it in the ghostly state that he's in now," Harry explained with a dark tone of voice.

The girls were all wide-eyed at Harry's explanation as Hallie and Hermione looked at Ginny in shock. The young redhead had a look of fear, disgust and shock on her face as she couldn't believe that the charming Tom Riddle was actually Voldemort and was using her for his own gain.

"Y-you're serious, aren't you?" Ginny asked fearfully.

"Deadly. We need to get that diary. I want to look at it and try to figure out how it works, how it got a hold off you, how you got it in the first place and how to destroy it. Oh, and if you want, I'll buy you a new, non-magical and non-possessed diary after this year is over," Harry said seriously before adding the last sentence to try and raise everyone's spirits.

"If it's true, you have to know that I-!" Ginny tried to say before Harry's finger on her lips silenced her.

"As I said before, Tom possessed you. You didn't even know what your own body was doing, so how can you be of fault for this? Now, let's get back to the common room and get that diary," Harry said.

The quartet then left the library after Harry returned the book to its correct place, ready for the next stage in solving this case.